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Braeden Carrington’s career-high 20 points helps Gophers end five-game losing skid

Andy Greder, Pioneer Press
·3 min read

The Gophers men’s basketball team hadn’t scored a bucket in more than six first-half minutes against Arkansas-Pine Bluff on Wednesday, and the U’s five-game losing streak was looming inside Williams Arena.

Then Braeden Carrington made it look like “NBA Jam.”

The freshman from Park Center High School hit two straight 3-pointers and was “heating up,” as the old video game’s announcer used to say. After a third consecutive trey, it was as if “He’s on fire!” — only there were no flames coming out of the Barn’s hoop.

Carrington busted out of a personal shooting slump with that trio of 3s and finished with a career-high 20 points as Minnesota snapped out of its three-week lull with a 72-56 victory over the Golden Lions.

The Gophers (5-6) had struggled in giving up first-half runs to opponents during its skid but warded off Arkansas-Pine Bluff (3-9) for the opening 20 minutes and led 36-25 at the break. Arkansas-Pine Bluff then cut the lead to 44-43 with 14 minutes left in the game.

“We were frozen for a second,” Gophers coach Ben Johnson said. “I think we were able to stop it, where in games before that it would have snowballed and maybe we would have lost the lead, but I liked the resolve that the guys noticed it and they pointed it out. They said, ‘No, not today. It’s not happening today.’ Credit the older guys, especially Dawson (Garcia), who was very vocal making sure guys stayed locked in.”

Johnson has talked about the toll missed shots can have as a part of human nature. For instance, how seeing a shot hit off the iron can bleed into breakdowns on defense, and he brought that up during the rough patch.

On Wednesday, Minnesota was hot, shooting 49 percent from the field, 44 percent from 3-point range and 78 percent from the free-throw line. Those overall numbers cooled a bit in the second half, but the U still shot at a better rate than any game so far this season. Minnesota was outside the top 230 programs in the country in those three categories going into the game.

In contrast, Arkansas-Pine Bluff shot 35 percent from the field and 21 percent from 3-point range.

Carrington made 4 of 7 from 3-pointers and made all six free throws, breaking out of a 3-for-21 mark from deep in the previous four games combined.

“It feels good, especially because the last couple of games I haven’t been hitting,” said Carrington, whose previous career high was 15. “My teammates had trust in me, so it feels good, they keep throwing me the ball and believe I can make it.”

Jamison Battle contributed 18 points, including 5 of 9 from deep. Garcia chipped in 14.

Minnesota had first-half downturns against every foe during the skid — UNLV, No. 24 Virginia Tech, No. 1 Purdue, Michigan and No. 17 Mississippi State. The U was better against Mississippi State on Sunday, but a Bulldog run in the final three minutes of the first half put the Gophers in a hole they weren’t able to get out of in a 69-51 loss.

They were able to withstand a first-half push thanks to Carrington’s hot stretch Wednesday.

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